Activists who resisted the eviction of the last remaining Property Guardians at a former nursing home in Bristol are stopping 11 families being permanently housed, according to the man in charge of the council’s housing stock.

There are plans for 11 two-bed council flats and two one-bed flats at the site of the Broomhill elderly people’s home in Brislington, but they can’t be built because the building is still occupied.

But Paul Smith, the councillor in charge of housing at Bristol City Council, said the delays were costing the council money – and preventing vital new homes being built.

“We will lose over £100,000 in council rent not collected due to the delay in this housing being built, tens of thousands in council tax and also the delay in building it means that households in temporary accommodation will be there longer - which is bad for them and also costs the council money,” he said.

Campaigners remain defiant at Broomhill

“The cost benefit analysis is massively towards the cost, caused by delays in getting council housing built on this site,” he added.

When the nursing home closed in 2013, the building was handed over by the council to be managed by Camelot as a temporary measure until it was decided what to do with it.

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Camelot are a property guardian company, who promise the owners of empty buildings to look after them at no cost, and then install people to live there as licence-holding ‘property guardians’ to provide de facto security, although they are specifically advised not to undertake the role of a security guard.

At one point around 25 people lived at Broomhill, and then Camelot asked them to leave in the late spring of 2016, because Bristol City Council asked for the building back.

Paul Smith, Bristol City Council cabinet member for housing

The council want to demolish it, and build council homes on the site, but have not been able to. Some of the property guardians, who have now lived there more than three and a half years, challenged their request to leave on the basis that they had become tenants, rather than the holders of licences.

They won their day in court, and also began a campaign to highlight the poor conditions they said Camelot were leaving them to live in – and accused Bristol City Council of being complicit in that.

The revelations about the use of empty council buildings led Cllr Smith to persuade the council to end the use of property guardian companies to look after empty buildings.

But campaigners said they were staying put and resisting eviction to pressure the council to take action against Camelot, and to demand an investigation into the council’s conduct during the years it had handed over the buildings to property guardian firms.

A member of the eviction team takes photos from outside Broomhill nursing home of the campaigners inside (Image: Jon Kent)

They saw off attempts to retake the building on Wednesday - Camelot's staff and a bailiff left without getting access, and a team of council workers sent to board it up were also turned away.

But Cllr Smith said he wanted to get the new homes built as soon as possible. “We are already 15 months behind time because of Camelot’s failure to return this building empty to the council,” said Cllr Smith.

“It (building work) would have started last year. The contractor is ready to go in as soon as the property is handed back with vacant possession,” he added.